Health Briefs

Alex Scott started a nationwide lemonade-selling fundraiser in 2004, raising $1 million just months before she died of cancer. Children are still raising money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which funnels the funds into cancer research projects.

Buy Alex's Lemonade

It's time to set up the lemonade stands again for National Lemonade Days from Friday, June 10, through Sunday, June 12, with all money raised going to childhood cancer research.

The Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation is challenging volunteers across the country to raise $1 million for cancer research in just three days. The foundation is named for 8-year-old cancer patient Alexandra "Alex" Scott, who decided in 2004 she would raise $1 million to help find new treatments and cures for cancer by selling lemonade and asking other kids across the country to do the same. Many responded, setting up Alex's Lemonade Stands all over the U.S.. Scott reached her fundraising goal before she died in August 2004.

Volunteers can register online at www.alexslemonade.org to operate a lemonade stand or host a variety of other fundraising events, and their sponsors can make pledges online as well. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised more than $40 million and funded more than 150 research projects nationally.

Nurture Your Body and Soul

During the next three months, Crescent Lotus Dance Studio (3143 Calhoun St., 382-5199; www.crescentlotus.com) is hosting a series of workshops aimed at improving women's bodies and souls using movement and healing techniques.

The LoveNurtureBody Women's Wellness Workshop is organized by Future Vision Women. The goal is to use dance, yoga and other movement, music, meditation, poetry and visualization to help women set goals, communicate better and overcome insecurities and fears. It also helps women acknowledge their personal needs and dreams, as well as accept their individual body types.

New Orleans Catholic Charities has two new locations for its ACCESS Pregnancy and Referral Centers — in the Daughters of Charity Health Centers in the Bywater and Carrollton neighborhoods. It already has established centers in Metairie and on the West Bank.

Maternity support services are available at 1030 Lesseps St. from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday, and at 3201 S. Carrollton Ave. from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

AMG 386 is designed to stop the body's normal process of creating new blood vessels to transport oxygen and nutrients to heal and nurture cells and tissues. By stopping the growth of vessels to cancer cells, the cells are starved and their development slows down or stops.

Women who participate in the study will receive either paclitaxel chemotherapy or that plus AMG 386. They must be at least 18 years old, diagnosed with recurrent epithelial ovarian, primary peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer, have had an ovary removed surgically and previously followed a platinum-based chemotherapy regimen.

For more information about the trial, call Mary Ann Ostroske at 885-8220.